Library and Information Science Commons^™

The Information Literacy Imperative In Higher Education, Todd J. Wiebe

Faculty Publications

This article contends that information literacy should be considered a standard component in a 21st century liberal education. It explores the role of libraries and librarians within this context while contrasting the "Google it" mentality with deep researching and critical thinking about information and the information-seeking process, both in libraries and in the free online environment.

Circulating Laptops In A Two-Year Academic Library: A Formative Assessment, Wendy S. Wilmoth

Georgia Library Quarterly

This paper will report on the implementation of a laptop loan project at Georgia Piedmont Technical College (GPTC). The program, initiated by the college president, is a joint project between the Learning Resource Centers (libraries) and the Office of Information Technology (OIT), designed to provide an off-campus computing solution for students without home access to computers. Refurbished laptops were provided by the OIT for checkout and check-in by the LRCs and maintenance by the student IT help desk (Hub). The development of the program will be discussed, including background information, development of policies and procedures, initial implementation, and preliminary assessment …

Library Newsletter Volume 11, Issue 2, Sacred Heart University

Library Newsletters

Highlights of the Fall 2015 SHU library newsletter include the introduction of four new librarians, articles on improvements to our Interlibrary Loan service and additions to e-book collections. Also included is information about open access and Creative Commons licensing ...and more.

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 2 Fall 2015, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

Frequently Asked Questions About Open Access@Sacred Heart University, Zachariah Claybaugh, Chelsea Stone

Librarian Publications

In academia, Open Access (OA) offers the possibility of saving time and lowering costs for faculty and students. Lesson plans, textbooks, journal access, etc. are just a few examples of how OA is aiming to change the dynamic in universities around the world.

Library Education And Development Newsletter, Volume 9, Issue 1, Uno Library Science Education

Library Education and Development (L.E.A.D.)

This issue of the Library Education and Development Newsletter features Advice from the Frontlines from Elizabeth Von Nagy, Student Spotlight on Denice Hein, Announcements, and Professional Development

Crowdsourcing As An Approach To Customer Relationship Building In Academic Libraries, Lisa A. Ellis, Aisha Pena

Publications and Research

Library initiatives to first-year students not only present an opportunity to offer information literacy instruction for student advancement but they also serve a key marketing function by communicating the library’s ongoing value and building customer relationships. Library orientation tours are an example of how to effectively market to first-year students. Combining peer-to-peer learning and user-generated content via social media known as crowdsourcing, Newman Library sponsored a contest challenging first-year students to create a video sharing a useful library tip. The contributions and benefits of this co-creation approach to fostering relationships are examined and the implications to strengthening other library-user bonds …

Interrogating Course-Related Public Interest Internships In Communications, Sandra Smeltzer

FIMS Publications

This article examines the benefits and drawbacks of for-credit, unpaid internships geared towards the public good. Attention is focused specifically on communication internships with non- governmental, non-profit, and community-based organizations. Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with students, staff, faculty, and host organizations, the author advances a critical model of service learning that more fully recognizes the labour of community partners and encourages students to consider what role they can and should play in advancing the public good. The article also highlights two key issues vis-à-vis public interest internships that are of particular relevance to the field of communications. …

Tribute To Rich Devos, Delivered On September 30, 2015, Arend D. Lubbers

Presidential Speeches

Tribute to Rich DeVos, delivered on September 30, 2015 by Arend D. Lubbers, who served as President of Grand Valley from 1969-2001.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 040, Number 05, September 28, 2015, Grand Valley State University

2015-2016, Volume 40

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 50, No. 10, September 28, 2015, Grand Valley State University

Volume 50, July 13, 2015 - June 6, 2016

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Accessibility For All: New Laws And Strategies For Diverse Learners, Melissa Whitesell, Andrea Roberson Ms.

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

The number of students with disabilities in the United States is steadily increasing. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2012, 11.3 percent of undergraduates reported some type of disability. The laws under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act regarding electronic and information technology (EIT) dictate changes that institutions must make to ensure accessibility for these students and the public at large.

All individuals, including those with disabilities, must have the tools for a world-class education offering them opportunities for success as a student and in the workplace. Due to rapid changes in information technology, this presents challenges …

Researching My Role For Myself: Reacting To The Past And Information Literacy, Caroline Hopkinson Ms., Allison Belzer

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (Harvard UP, 2014) Mark Carnes argues that curricula such as “Reacting to the Past” engages students in subversive play in order to succeed in instilling concepts that have proved difficult to teach by other methods: critical thinking, empathy, leadership, a realistic view of history, and ultimately a better understanding of themselves. Such experiences, we have found, also foster inquiry and strategic thinking, core concepts of ACRL’s framework for information literacy.

Participants will experience an abbreviated “game day” session from the Reacting to the Past curriculum, to illustrate how the role playing …

“All About That Bass”: Source Evaluation For Music Performance Students, Elizabeth J. Weisbrod, Karen Garrison

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

The information literacy needs of music students include not only the written word, but also scores and recordings. Music students need to be able to evaluate music sources in the same way an English composition student would evaluate written sources for a paper. What makes an edition of a musical score authoritative? What makes a recording reliable? Information literacy for music students involves learning to use scores, recordings, and musical research to better prepare their performances. Helping students develop the tools to evaluate musical editions and recordings assists the student in becoming a better overall musician and performer.

Using the …

High School To College Transition Initiatives: Making It A Reality, Denise Woetzel, Anita B. Tarbox

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

The challenge continues for both secondary and post-secondary institutions to help high school students successfully transition to college. High school and college librarians share common goals with teaching faculty in helping students succeed and include improving college students’ first-year experience as well as fostering lifelong learning. One step towards bridging this gap is for librarians to work together with their constituencies in improving students’ information literacy skills. Historically, librarians at Reynolds Community College in Richmond, VA have collaborated with high school librarians and teachers in the Richmond area on an ad hoc basis upon request. Most recently, Reynolds librarians have …

Librarianship After Detours: The Path Of Second Career Librarians, Carrie Moran, Erica England, Jenna Settles

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Librarianship is often a second career path, and librarians typically have varied academic backgrounds. A librarian’s academic and professional career prior to librarianship can impact and inform one’s library career, particularly outreach and instruction activities related to information literacy.

This panel will feature three librarians who will discuss how their diverse backgrounds have impacted the way they work with students within and outside of the classroom. Two of the librarians are from public research universities, and one represents a large two year college system. Their academic backgrounds include degrees in Psychology, English, and Business, while their professional backgrounds include crisis …

International Students And The Ase Research Process: A Language Acquisition Approach To Research, Kimberly Willson-St. Clair

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

The ASE research model, Analyze, Search, Evaluate, developed by Don Latham and Melissa Gross with IMLS funding for teaching community college students remedial information literacy and research skills works remarkably well with international students studying English. The ASE research model can be incorporated into LibGuides and used to structure library classroom instruction especially in regards to vocabulary building within the disciplines. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how this process works toward discovering new language. The Intensive English Language Program (IELP) at Portland State University is the oldest English immersion program for higher education in the Pacific Northwest. As the …

Seismic Shifts: The Framework For Information Literacy As An Integrating Force, Sharon Mader

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Sharon Mader, Ed.D. is the ACRL Visiting Program Officer for Information Literacy, whose primary responsibility is to spearhead the launch and implementation of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Dr. Mader retired at the end of January 2015 after fifteen years as Dean of Library Services at the University of New Orleans. She has worked at a variety of public and private academic institutions, including University of Illinois Health Sciences, Lake Forest College, DePaul University, and University of Memphis. Her teaching background includes service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia and being a founding faculty member …

The Core 4 Assessment Test Bank: One Stop Shopping For Information Literacy Assessment!, Rachel Cooke, Jenna Enomoto, Kim Reycraft, Steve Rokusek, Heather Snapp

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In Fall 2013, academic librarians at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) set out to develop their own instructional assessment test bank to evaluate library program effectiveness, improve the student learning experience and determine if library services were effectively developing information literacy skills in learners. Using the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000) adopted by ACRL in conjunction with their own information literacy plan, they focused on four critical competency areas: information access points, search tool selection, library website utilization, and classification schemes.

This panel presentation provides an overview of the challenges and successes they experienced in creating and …

Partnering With Teaching Faculty To Incorporate The Framework For Information Literacy For Higher Education, Tami Robinson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Whitworth University Library developed Library Instruction/ Information Literacy Objectives based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education that we have been using for the past decade. Endorsed, in 2008 by the Library & Information Resources Committee, comprised of teaching faculty, these objectives are aimed at specific learning outcomes for the First Year Seminar, writing composition, and discipline specific courses. The progression of information literacy skills reflected in these objectives begins at the basic introductory level, then moves on to basic research skills, and finally to complex discipline specific research skills. Faculty buy-in has been sporadic and uneven …

Go Research! Building An Information Literacy Tool That Bridges The Gap, Julie Ladell-Thomas, Jennifer J. Rundels

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

With the increase in online learning, identifying new ways to develop the information literacy skills of distance learners is paramount. Developing a research question, selecting resources, searching databases, refining search results, getting full text, and citing sources in the online environment can be especially challenging for nontraditional learners who may not have the same digital know-how as traditional students or digital natives. Global Campus librarians at Central Michigan University (CMU) travel to CMU’s remote centers to provide information literacy instruction for core research courses. But how do they reach everyone, including students taking classes online? Because distance students are typically …

Rebooting A Technical Writing Course: Control Instructional Design, Alt Information Literacy, And Delete Non-Collaboration, Kelly Diamond, Gregg Thumm

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Members of this panel, an instructional design librarian and a teaching faculty member, began collaborating in summer 2014 to revise and redesign English 305: Scientific and Technical Writing; the faculty instructor wanted to improve this course by redesigning it based on instructional design principles, but also to include more information literacy instruction into this online course.

This panel will discuss faculty’s perceived problems with the initial version of the class, including lack of student participation and poor choices of research materials for assignments. We will discuss how we tried to eliminate those deficiencies through instructional design and redesigning authentic assignments …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of A Pre-Class Intervention In Establishing An Information Literacy Baseline, Adelia B. Grabowsky

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

It is expected that undergraduates entering a BSN clinical program as juniors will possess basic information literacy skills. The reality is that skills vary widely, complicating efforts to provide more advanced, discipline-specific instruction. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-class intervention intended to establish an information literacy baseline in newly admitted nursing students. Setting/Participants: Nursing students in the first clinical semester of a BSN program at a large, southeastern, research university. Intervention: Before attending a library instruction class, students watch a short video and complete a worksheet which they bring to class. Outcome Measures: …

Frameworks, Standards, And Benchmarks, Oh My!, Adrienne Harmer, Patti Lee

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Are you wondering how to adapt the old standards to the new framework? We were too, but we think we’ve found a way. We deconstructed all the information literacy competencies, arranged the threshold concepts according to Bloom’s taxonomy within each frame (in order to scaffold learning from lower to higher order thinking), then mapped the big ideas and the related skills and abilities across four levels of proficiency in order to construct our own institutional benchmarks. Wanna know how we did it? Come find out! We will discuss our process and how we use our living document as the foundation …

Using Technology As A Hook For Information Literacy In The Digital Age: Go Tech, Rebecca B. Engsberg

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Under the category of “DEFINING INFORMATION LITERACY in a digital age,” I will share with conference attendees some ways of using technology as a hook to snare student interest and involvement with information literacy outreach efforts. This also includes incorporating technology into actual information literacy instruction.

As the Liaison Librarian for the English Language Institute (ELI)—an intensive English language program for international students who are preparing to begin undergraduate or graduate studies in the US—I teach students about library services and how to use the library.

Since there is no longer a designated ELI class where instructors regularly bring their …

Outside The Box: An Information Literacy Course Web2.0 Project, Ru Story Huffman

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Outside The Box: An Information Literacy Course Web2.0 Project

At Georgia Southwestern State University, “Foundations of Information Literacy” is an Area B course to fulfill core requirements. The one hour course is theoretical and practical in content and offers students information beyond the “traditional” information literacy course descriptions. A theme of the course is the impact of information on the life of the college student. For the final project, students are required to use a Web2.0 tool to illustrate how information influences their everyday life. Discussions include how information is obtained, used, disseminated, and evaluated. Students develop the presentation and …

Exploring And Preventing Accidental Plagiarism In A Digital Age, Amy Y. Sexton

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In our online only college writing center, we often hear from students that they are not sure that they need citation or references in their papers because they did not use any research but instead only looked at a few web sites. Students sometimes present with plagiarism issues in their writing and attest that they did not borrow any outside wording when a quick Internet search confirms that they did, in fact, use text verbatim without directly quoting the words. These scenarios and others seem to be instances of accidental plagiarism, and helping students work through them raises the following …

Operation Library Enlightenment: Library Instruction For Rotc Cadets, Bridget S. Farrell

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Military intelligence, the process of gathering and evaluating information, parallels skills often taught in the library instruction classroom. Inspired by this connection, two librarians worked with an ROTC instructor to create a library orientation tailored to the interests and learning styles of Army ROTC Cadets that encouraged them to find and evaluate information about the library.

Before and during the class session, care was taken to model the structure of the session as if it was a mission the cadets were trying to execute. The ROTC instructor created an “Operations Order” (OPORD) that laid out the plan for the session …

Think Inside The Blocks: Health Literacy Outreach To Disadvantaged People In Their Own Environment, Nancy Patterson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

This bilingual (Spanish/English) poster highlights six creative health literacy outreach projects that have proven to be successful in increasing participation in health-related events in their communities and in boosting health literacy in the process.

For example, in Georgetown, South Carolina, a beauty salon owner, concerned about her clients’ frequent frustration with trying to decipher medical information, partners with her local public library and is grant funded to provide a Wellness Workstation in her salon. Years later, her clients research health information between services using the workstation, evening health literacy classes are regularly conducted for community members and continued funding has …

Designing An Upper-Level Research Course In An Online Environment, Susan N. Moore, Janet Ward, Lizah Ismail

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

The workshop focuses on ideas for developing an online course to provide proper knowledge of research strategies appropriate for a 3-credit hour course. During the workshop, the course development process will be shared, and there will be time for participants to brainstorm ways to deliver instruction online through various assignments and research activities so that students gain an understanding of advanced library research, critical thinking, and evaluating skills.

The presenters developed Academic Research, a 300-level course specifically for online students. The course has been so popular it has been designated as a required course for graduation in the fields of …